Cornwall

Helen Haricot very kindly pointed out a Khyam Excelsior on eBay, going very cheaply. We weren’t actively looking for a new tent, but it was a bargain and ended up getting it, a bit to our surprise. I expect most of the reason why it was so cheap was that you had to collect it from St. Austell in Cornwall.

So I took a long weekend off work and we headed off to collect it. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, so filled up my phone with poor quality photos. This also gave us a chance to stop off with friends en route and have a nice time with them. They are bookworms and mathematicians, so we all enjoyed a new book and K enjoyed a new game.

The next day we headed off again, and stopped in Okehampton for lunch. It was very nice (our first visit), and had a very good bakery. Next stop St. Austell with big hiils, and we picked up the tent. Then a short hop to the camp site, which was lovely. It was just outside the splendidly-named village of London Apprentice, complete with its Primitive Methodist chapel.

The tent had both its bedrooms on, so putting it up was even trickier than it could have been. A was continuing her grotty patch, the other three didn’t help much either, and it started getting dark by the time we had it able to be slept in. It wouldn’t have won any prizes for a well-pitched Khyam, but it was good enough. We’d been inadvertantly misled by the seller about what some of the poles were, which puzzled us for a bit, but we know for next time. Katy took off one of the bedrooms so we would huddle into the remaining one for warmth. Even with just one bedroom it’s enormous. I think Khyam should name their tents after cathedrals (the Lincoln, the Durham…) as they have the size and aerodynamics of one. I have used tents smaller than one of the bedrooms. And the main bit is cavernous!

I disappeared off in search of takeaway for tea and grossly over-catered Chinese, which various people scattered all over the place when I got back, and K managed to tip about a litre of water over our bedding :(. Under enough blankets and coats we got to sleep, squeezed in, and listening to owls and other birds I can’t remember now.

The next day we just pootled about, as we’d done lots of driving the two days before and would be doing the next day. So we went to the swimming pool, the mini play barn thing, said hello to the goats and donkeys and headed off to Mevagissey for lunch as it was just down the road. (We decided against any of the big local things like the Eden Project or Heligan, as we only got ourselves organised late in the day.)

Mevagissey is lovely. We ate in a restaurant in the harbour, which was almost over-the-top in its decor (see Flickr) and had lots of simple but very nice food. Couldn’t manage a cream tea after a big first course. Then we wandered around a bit, and found a proper sweet shop. It had rows and rows of jars, a nice chap serving behind the counter who would weigh you out a quarter (or in metric), and us parents indulged in several trips down memory lane. We passed on the life-sized Cornish pasty made of chocolate!

One thing Mevagissey doesn’t have is a beach, so on the way back to the camp site we stopped at Pentewan. We couldn’t get onto the private beach for a camp site, so we stayed on the smaller public one, which is a slightly strange very fine grit rather than sand or shingle. Despite it being definitely coat weather, it was still very nice indeed. If I lived near the sea my soul would be healthier, but then I live near a river and don’t take advantage of that.

The children got black tongues from the black jacks we’d just bought, collected stones and shells, played chicken with the waves and really enjoyed themselves. We had decided to travel light in order to fit in the tent without needing the roof box, so takeaway for tea. Pizza from a kebab shop in St. Austell, followed by Angel Delight – all by torchlight back in the tent.

On Monday we packed up the tent, which I think was less stressful than putting it up, played in the playground for a bit, said goodbye to the goats and donkeys and then headed off. We planned to stop off at a random National Trust place on the way back, and tried Finch Foundry. Unfortunately it was closed till March, so we just had a mooch about for a bit, found a groovy thatched summerhouse (see Flickr) and then drove on.

Katy persuaded me to stop at Exeter as we passed although I took until the last turning to grudgingly accept her suggestion. The Cathedral was charging £5 per adult to get in, which made us a bit grumpy (or rather, me grumpier, as it seemed a lot to get into a church, but then coming here and not going in seemed silly too. Grrr…) In the end Katy took pity on me and cleared off to the shops with the children for a wander while I went in.

It is fantastic – the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England, an organ with huuuuuge pipes, a splendid pre-Copernicus clock, the most enormous carved wooden canopy over the bishop’s throne, and peace.

We met up in the Cathedral tea-room, which rivals the Houses of Parliament tea-room, with its vaulted ceiling. We finally managed to get a cream tea, and learned the difference between the Cornish way of doing it (scone, butter, jam, cream) and the Devonian way (scone, cream, jam).

Nice though the stop-off was, it did mean we were very late home, and I dragged myself into work quite tired on Tuesday.